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Duke loss busts more NCAA tournament brackets

Whom the CFPB boss, Sallie Krawcheck and others see in the Final 4

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MarketWatchroundup

Reuters/James Snook/USA TODAY Sports

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So much for perfection.

After Day 1 of the NCAA basketball tournament — a day marked by upsets, close calls and blowouts — no one in MarketWatch’s pool was unblemished. (Blame that buzzer beater by Texas for the one miss by our current leader.)

And now No. 3 seed Duke’s surprise 78-71 loss to Mercer University, a school of 8,300 in Macon, Ga., is wrecking more havoc. Fewer than 2% of MarketWatch bracket pickers saw that one coming.

No need to feel bad: Just about every bracket in America is messed up. CBSSports.com says just 0.03% of the brackets it tracks were still perfect after that Duke loss, down from 0.2% at the end of play Thursday night. It isn’t disclosing the actual number. And as for that $1 billion bracket offer from Quicken Loans and Warren Buffett, there are only a sweet 16 still in contention. Odds? Try 9.2 quintillion to 1.

Reuters

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Here’s how MarketWatch bracket players are thinking about the eventual winner of the Big Dance: They favor Florida, the overall No. 1 seed.

Also making the Final Four are Louisville (No. 4 in the Midwest regional), Arizona (No. 1 in the West) and Michigan State (No. 4 in the East and President Obama’s choice to win the national championship). Our bracketologists barely have undefeated Wichita State, the top seed in the Midwest, making the Elite 8.

Here are some calls on the Final Four from some familiar names among MarketWatch readers:

Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, picked Michigan State to win it all, over Duke. He’s a Spartan alumnus, and was a student during the Magic Johnson years. His other picks: Florida and Wisconsin.

Sallie Krawcheck picked her alma mater, as well, predicting that North Carolina would best Arizona for the title. Krawcheck, a former executive at Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., now owns the women’s networking group 85 Broads. She describes herself as a “crazed” UNC basketball fan, though her Twitter feed shows some affinity for the University of Virginia as well. Not that she has the Cavs reaching the Final Four — her other two entrants are Kansas and Louisville.

Patrick Doyle, the CEO of Domino’s, also is playing the alumni card, going with Michigan. Plus, his company is based in Ann Arbor. As a freshman, he lived in the same dorm as the basketball team, which included the likes of Roy Tarpley. He was quick to point out another benefit of Madness: “We sell lots of pizza!”

Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, foresees Louisville beating Florida for the championship. Virginia and Arizona also reach his Final Four. He’s also come up with his own Sweet 16 on key issues facing the markets.

Kirk Spano, a Trading Deck columnist for MarketWatch, is going with Florida over Wisconsin in the final, to be played April 7 at AT&T Stadium in “North Texas.” Iowa State and Louisville also will make it all the way to that final weekend. “Probably wrong on three out of four, but, as Peter Lynch says, a few big winners make up for the losers,” he adds.

Tony Bako, chief technology officer at Mosaic, puts Kansas, Arizona, Michigan State and Louisville in the Final Four. Kansas will win it all, he says, knocking off Pac-12 champ UCLA after it bests what he describes as a relatively untested Florida team. Wichita State, he notes, hasn’t played consistent competition at the tournament level.

And while some fill out their bracket based on mascots, school colors or personal history, SolarCity Chief Executive Lyndon Rive is testing the theory that progress in solar correlates with basketball prowess. That wipes out most of the No. 1 seeds (just Arizona makes it). Instead, he has Syracuse (a No. 3 seed), UMass (a No. 6 seed) and UConn (a No. 7 seed). But in the end, it’s the No. 1 seed that prevails.

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